/ 


n  n  JAN  1914 

f  *  A.  ;  / 

THE  HIGH  SCHOOL  DEBATING  LEAGUE. 

Paper  Presented  at  the  Minnesota  Educational  Association  January  1,  1903, 

edward  e.  McDermott. 

Debate  is  desirable  under  proper  conditions  because  it  develops  fluency 
in  the  use  of  English.  It  is  not  denied  that  other  subjects  can  be  so  used  as 
to  accomplish  the  same  result.  History — especially  when  the  topic  method 
is  freely  used — English  Literature,  and  even  Geometry  are  so  used  in  a  few 
schools.  But  these  schools  are  exceptions.  Without  any  intention  of  reflect¬ 
ing  upon  methods  of  instruction,  it  is  safe  to  assert  the  possibility  of  a  child 
passing  from  the  primary  through  the  university  without  giving  any  special 
attention  to  oral  English.  During  a  large  part  of  his  course  he  is  pleasantly 
entertained  by  fluent  teachers  and  lecturers.  There  is  no  doubt  that  they  get 
splendid  practice  out  of  it,  but  how  about  the  student?  He  sits  in  the  back 
seat  and  is  expected  to  listen  attentively.  He  is  allowed  to  answer,  in  frag¬ 
mentary  and  ungrammatical  English,  an  occasional  question  addressed  to 
him.  So  popular  has  the  lecture  become  that,  Lorenzo  like,  the  average 
student  is  in  danger  of  forgetting  the  sound  of  his  own  tongue.  If  at  the 
end  of  his  sixteen  years  of  study,  he  has  some  ability  to  talk  straight  while 
thinking  and  think  straight  while  talking  it  has  been  unconsciously  absorbed, 
— it  is  the  result  of  accident,  not  design. 

It  may  be  urged  that  out  of  school  hours  children  are  constantly  talking 
among  themselves  and  with  their  parents  and  in  this  way  they  secure  suffi¬ 
cient  pracuce  Admitted.  They  are  constantly  practicing.  But  this  con¬ 
stant  practice  without  criticism  oi  supervision  only  serves  to  fix  more  firmly* 
their  many  mistakes.  The  price  they  pay  to  get  rid  of  these  mistakes  later 
is  both  interest  and  principal  compounded  quarterly.  If  this  seems  to  be  an 
exaggeration,  put  the  matter  to  a  practical  test.  Ask  the  next  child  you 
meet  to  direct  you  to  some  place,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  city.  Never 
mind  about  the  place,  but  notice  carefully  his  clearness,  fluency,  sentence 
structure  and  grammar. 

In  this  connection  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  there  is  no  time  quite 
so  opportune  for  securing  an  easy  and  accurate  use  of  English  as  the  years 
spent  in  high  school.  Psychologists  tell  us  that  the  correct  and  fluent  use 
of  our  native  tongue  is  largely  a  mental  habit,  and  the  easiest  time  to  form 
this  habit  is  under  the  age  of  twenty.  Few  people  become  good  extempore 
speakers  after  twenty-five — none  after  thirty. 

The  question  for  every  educator  to  ask  is  just  this — Is  it  worth  while,  is 
it  worth  the  extra  time  and  labor  it  costs,  to  be  able  to  express  one’s  ideas 
clearly  and  in  good  English?  If  the  question  is  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
then  it  must  be  admitted  that  at  the  proper,  time  and  under  the  proper  con¬ 
ditions.  debate  is  desirable,  because  there  is  no  other  subject  in  our  course 
of  study  that  is  so  specifically  aimed  at  the  fluent  use  of  mother  tongue  as 
debate. 

Debate  develops  ability  to  think  before  an  audience.  This  ability  does 
not  come  by  theorizing  nor  by  chance.  It  comes  by  practice.  It  is  not 
denied  that  it  can  be  acquired  out  of  school  and  before  the  public,  but  in 
most  such  cases,  both  the  speaker  and  the  public  are  to  be  pitied.  The 
school  is  the  workshop  for  all  such  efforts;  there,  blunders  are  expected, 
excused  and  corrected.  Before  the  public,  they  are  not,  and  every  speaker 
who  practices  on  the  public  pays  in  the  loss  of  reputation  a  high  price  for 
a  painful  experience. 


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1 


Debate  develops  skill  to  sift  material, — a  sense  of  proportion.  In  other 
words,  it  develops  judgment.  The  student  who  is  prep^aing  for  debate 
cannot  read  with  his  brain  in  a  stupor.  It  is  not  sufficient  .or  him  merely 
to  understand  what  he  reads  as  it  is  in  other  studies.  He  must  weigh,  com¬ 
pare,  discriminate,  retain  the  important  and  discard  the  uniniportant.  Thus 
his  judgment  is  constantly  called  to  pass  upon  material,  all  of  which  may  be 
truthful  but  which  differs  in  weight. 

Closely  allied  to  this  point  is  skill  in  the  arrangement  of  the  material. 
It  is  not  sufficient  to  sift  the  matter  read  and  secure  a  number  of  important 
points.  These  points  must  be  arranged  logically.  Link  by  link,  they  must 
be  welded  into  a  perfect  chain.  Step  by  step,  they  must  carry  the  judges  on 
to  conviction. 

Nor  is  the  ability  which  debate  develops  to  condense  material  of  less  im¬ 
portance  than  the  two  points  just  mentioned.  “Boil  it  down”  is  the  war-cry 
of  the  debater.  In  one  of  our  intercollegiate  debates  last  year,  three  of  our 
University  students  read,  by  careful  estimate,  15,000  pages  of  solid  literature. 
Any  one  of  these  students  could  easily  have  talked  half  a  day  on  his  divi¬ 
sion  of  the  subject  but  he  must  prove  his  case  in  twelve  minutes  or  fail. 
Again  and  again  in  these  debates,  students  would  be  almost  willing  to  sell 
their  birthright  for  a  minute  more,  but  twelve  minutes  for  constructive  argu¬ 
ment,  and  five  minutes  for  rebuttal,  is  the  unalterable  rule.  Any  one  who 
watches  these  students  as  day  after  day  they  “boil  down”  and  discard  argu¬ 
ment  after  argument,  which  at  first  seemed  to  them  to  be  vital,  until  at  last 
they  have  the  bare  skeleton  of  their  argument,  cannot  doubt  that  they  are 
getting  vigorous  mental  discipline. 

Skill  in  original  research  and  the  use  of  the  library  is  a  necessary  part  of 
the  training  of  every  educated  man.  Debate,  more  than  anything  else,  de- 
velopes  the  student  along  these  lines.  It  prompts  him  to  correspond  and 
seek  interviews  with  those  who  are  familiar  with  his  proposition.  It  is  one 
of  the  first  subjects  in  school  that  teaches  the  student  the  free  use  of  the 
jibrary.  Under  its  stimulus,  he  soon  learns  to  go  everywhere  and  search 
everything  for  material. 

It  is  said  that  a  good  lawyer  does  not  always  know  the  law,  but  he 
always  knows  where  to  find  it.  If  this  is  so,  the  good  debater  is  more  than 
the  good  lawyer  for  he  not  only  knows  where  to  find  the  law  but  he  knows 
the  law  and  how  to  use  it.  . 

Debate  develops  self-reliance  and  courage  of  conviction.  The  man  who 
has  opinions  and  is  not  afraid  to  express  them  is  likely  to  be  a  better  citizen 
than  the  man  who  has  opinions  and  is  afraid  to  express  them,  for  fear  he  may 
differ  from  some  one  and  get  into  a  heated  discussion.  The  man  who  is  in 
the  habit  of  expressing  his  opinions  at  the  proper  time  and  place  on  subjects 
which  concern  him  always  stands  somewhere  and  you  know  exactly  where 
to  find  him.  The  man  who,  though  he  has  opinions,  never  expresses  them 
and  always  agrees  with  you,  is  the  most  tedious  and  uninteresting  of  all 
mankind.  The  “yes” — “yes” — “yes”  man  is  like  a  mud  fort.  Napoleon  once 
said  he  would  rather  turn  his  guns  upon  anything  than  a  mud  fortification. 
He  never  could  tell  when  it  was  reduced. 

Debate  develops  courtesy  to  opponents.  When  the  ignorant,  the  un¬ 
trained  man,  enters  into  a  discussion,  he  becomes  angry  and  wants  to  fight 
at  once.  Every  one  who  differs  from  him  is  his  enemy  and  should  be 
thrashed.  It  takes  a  great  deal  of  training  to  enter  into  a  serious  argument 
to  become  angry,  to  give  and  take  hard  blows  and  yet  to  be  a  gentleman. 
The  fist  fights  which  have  disgraced  our  United  States  senate — rarely,  it  is 
fortunate — prove  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 

Debate  develops  the  habit  of  studying  with  care  both  sides  of  a  question. 
It  is  true  that  the  debater  cannot  always  sit  on  the  fence  and  play  the  part 
of  a  judge.  Sooner  or  later  he  must  accept  one  side  or  the  other  and  be¬ 
come  an  advocate.  But  before  doing  so,  he  looks  over  the  whole  field  care¬ 
fully.  He  anticipates  the  argument  which  his  opponent  must  present  and 


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prepares  to  meel  it.  This  very  habit  of  deliberation  prevents  snap  shot  judg¬ 
ments,  jumping  to  conclusions,  and  develops  a  judicial  turn  of  mind  as  well 
as  power  to  advocate. 

Cribbing  is  a  common  evil  in  schools.  The  notorious  case  of  the  An¬ 
dover  students  seeking  admission  to  Princeton  University  is  still  fresh  in 
our  minds.  No  school  is  wholly  exempt.  No  study  escapes.  But  it  is  a 
most  pernicious  and  persistent  habit  in  English  composition  and  one  that 
taxes  the  ingenuity  of  the  average  teacher  to  cope  with.  Every  principal 
must  have  observed  the  marked  tendency  which  some,  often  many  of  his 
students  have,  to  crib  their  composition,  if  not  all  the  time,  at  least  on 
special  and  great  occasions.  Take  a  typical  case.  Commencement  is  ap¬ 
proaching.  The  Senior  class  is  small.  Every  one  is  expected  to  appear  on 
the  program.  Every  one  promptly  begins  a  nervous  search  for  a  subject 
and  for  material.  Encyclopedias,  antiquated  books  and  dusty  magazines 
are  the  chief  treasure  houses.  The  more  timid  speakers,  less  experienced 
writers  and  less  scrupulous  students  will  sometimes  copy  almost  the  entire 
essay  from  a  single  article.  The  more  experienced  and  more  conscientious 
will  select  a  sentence  from  this  source  and  a  paragraph  from  that  and  glue 
the  whole  together  with  an  occasional  sentence  of  their  own.  The  result 
is  frequently  startling  to  say  the  least.  It  looks  more  like  a  “crazy-quilt” 
than  like  a  composition.  Who  is  to  blame?  Perhaps  nobody.  Certainly 
not  the  poor,  abused  and  ambitious  children.  They  have  had  almost  no 
training  in  expression,  oral  or  written.  The  occasion  is  a  great  one  and 
they  are  anxious  to  appear  at  their  best.  They  recognize  at  once  that  the 
literary  style  of  the  magazine  and  the  encyclopedia  is  smoother  than  their 
own  and  they  yield  to  the  temptation.  Perhaps  the  teacher  is  not  to  blame. 
Such  a  thing  as  a  good  course  in  practical  English  has  not  existed  in  his 
school.  The  course  already  mapped  out  consumes  all  the  time  of  himself 
and  his  assistants  and  that  course  must  be  “gone  through  with”  at  all  haz¬ 
ards.  The  School  Board  expects  it  and  the  higher  institutions  demand  it 
for  entrance.  But  commencement  essays  by  the  girls  and  orations  by  the 
boys  are  time-honored  exercises  which  cannot  be  discontinued  with  im¬ 
punity.  Hence,  a  demand  is  made  upon  the  student  which  he  is  not  pre¬ 
pared  to  meet. 

But  let  us  come  to  the  remedy.  Suppose  the  high  school  student  has 
really  learned  to  debate  by  the  time  he  reaches  his  senior  year.  He  is  not 
afraid  of  his  own  ideas.  He  knows  how  to  sift  material  and  arrange  it  in 
effective  form.  When  called  before  his  teacher,  he  can  give  an  outline  of 
what  he  intends  to  write  and  extemporize  on  it  for  ten  or  fifteen  minutes, 
if  desirable.  Such  a  student  will  never  crib.  He  has  reached  a  point  where 
it  is  as  great  a  pleasure  for  him  to  express  thought  as  it  is  to  glean  it  and 
when  expression  becomes  a  pleasure,  the  student  is  always  guarded  against 
the  pernicious  and  stultifying  habit  of  cribbing.  If  any  teacher  has  had 
trouble  with  cribbing-students  let  him  try  forensics  and  debate.  If  proper¬ 
ly  administered,  the  remedy  is  guaranteed. 

Every  man  hopes  to  win  victories,  but  at  any  rate  he  is  sure  to  meet 
with  defeat.  The  man  who  thinks  he  can  get  along  without  contests  for¬ 
gets  that  the  great  law  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest  is  still  in  force — never 
more  strenuously  than  in  this  age  of  fierce  competition.  The  man  who  hopes 
to  get  out  of  contests  had  better  die,  and  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that  he  will 
escape  even  then.  The  man  who  reaches  maturity  and  enters  any  occupa¬ 
tion — teaching,  law,  medicine,  journalism,  business,  the  ministry  or  what¬ 
not — without  learning  how  to  take  a  good  hard  knock  down  and  benefit  by 
it  is  to  be  pitied.  When  he  feels  the  first  shock  of  actual  conflict,  he  is  in 
great  danger.  He  may  sulk  in  his  tent  and  develop  into  a  first-class  pessi¬ 
mist,  or  he  may  sneak  into  the  rear  and  sit  there  ready  to  do  the  bidding 
of  any  inferior  man  who  has  learned  to  be  a  more  ready  fighter,  a  more 
cheerful  fighter,  and  a  harder  fighter.  Life  is  one  continuous  debate.  The 
boy  who  has  learned  how  to  accept  defeat  philosophically,  having  done 


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everything  honorable  to  avert  it,  and  then  stands  up  smiling  and  ready  for 
the  next  battle,  has  learned  one  of  the  most  valuable  lessons  for  practical 
life  that  the  schools  can  teach.  He  is  on  his  way  to  ultimate  success. 

Debate  is  the  best — because  it  is  the  most  practical — form  of  vocal 
rhetoricals.  Until  quite  recently,  the  only  effort  made  to  beach  vocal  rhe¬ 
torical  in  most  schools  was  through  the  declamation  and  the  recitation. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  declamation  is  of  very  slight  educational  value. 
It  still  has  a  place  but  that  place  is  a  modest  one.  It  familiarizes  the  stud¬ 
ent  with  bits  of  good  literature,  trains  his  voice,  gives  him  stage  presence, 
and  when  unaccompanied  by  too  much  “agony,”  is  pleasant  enough  for  his 
relatives  to  listen  to.  But  it  is  only  a  means  to  an  end  and  should  not  be 
made  an  end  in  itself.  In  so  far  as  it  paves  the  way  for  the  student  to  ex¬ 
press  his  own  thoughts,  it  is  valuable.  There  it  should  stop  with  all  ex¬ 
cept  the  very  few  who  are  fitting  themselves  to  be  professional  entertainers. 
When  the  services  of  the  professional  elocutionists  have  been  employed — 
as  they  have  been  too  often  in  the  past — to  teach  children  the  art  of  arti¬ 
ficiality  and  egotism,  the  results  have  been  pitiable  and  exasperating.  It 
does  seem  that  the  best  teachers  of  the  state  would  eagerly  embrace  the 
opportunity  offered  by  debate  to  make  their  students  simple,  earnest  and 
natural  speakers. 

If  it  is  granted,  then,  that  for  the  foregoing  and  other  reasons,  debate 
is  desirable  under  proper  conditions,  the  next  question  which  confronts 
us  is  this:  Do  the  high  schools  offer  the  proper  conditions  for  the  profita¬ 
ble  study  of  debate?  Let  us  consider  this  question  first  from  the  stand¬ 
point  of  age.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  an  age  under  which  it  is 
worse  than  useless  to  attempt  debate — it  is  time  wasted.  There  may  be 
an  occasional  precocious  child  who  understands  the  full  force  of  debate 
while  still  in  the  upper  grades,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  average  child 
does  not.  The  average  child  may  be  able  to  distinguish  between  exposition 
and  argumentation  when  the  difference  is  pointed  out  clearly  and  illus¬ 
trated  by  his  teacher.  lie  may  be  able  to  select  examples  from  literature 
placed  before  him.  But  when  left  to  his  own  resources,  when  asked  to  con¬ 
struct  an  argument  for  himself,  he  cannot  even  discriminate  between  proof 
and  assertion.  He  constantly  uses  the  latter  for  the  former  and  it  satis¬ 
fies  his  mind. 

Indeed,  until  a  certain  stage  of  mental  development  is  reached,  the  dis¬ 
tinction  is  difficult.  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  greatest  debater  of  his  age,  com¬ 
plained  of  this.  He  said  he  could  never  tell  when  he  had  actually  proved  a 
proposition  until  after  he  had  studied  Euclid.  Even  Euclid  does  not  solve 
the  difficulty  for  a  great  many  students.  University  students,  long  after 
they  have  mastered  Euclid,  are  quite  frequently  found  who  are  entirely 
satisfied  that  assertion  is  proof.  It  is  not  until  well  along  toward  their 
senior  year,  and  after  considerable  practice  in  debate,  that  they  are  able 
to  detect  readily  a  weak  spot  in  their  own  argument  and  point  out  one  in 
the  argument  of  their  opponents.  It  was  probably  not  so  much  the  study 
of  Euclid  that  brought  new  light  to  Lincoln  in  the  matter  of  proof,  as  it 
was  his  arrival  at  a  certain  stage  of  mental  development.  Consciousness 
of  proof  and  the  study  of  Euclid  was  a  mere  coincidence. 

The  years  which  most  students  spend  in  the  high  school  are  from  four¬ 
teen  to  eighteen,  and  it  is  probable  that  somewhere  within  this  period,  the 
average  student  who  has  been  properly  trained  begins  to  realize  the  full 
force  of  debate.  It  has  come  to  be  something  definite  to  him  then,  although 
skill  and  ease  are  not  acquired  without  some  years  of  practice.  The  best 
testimony  on  this  point  comes  from  students  themselves  and  from  careful 
teachers  who  have  given  the  subject  a  trial  and  have  observed  the  results. 
If  we  can  credit  them,  we  are  led  to  believe  that  debate  is  practicable  in  the 
high  school  so  far  as  age  is  concerned. 

But  it  may  be  urged  that  even  if  all  other  conditions  in  the  high  schools 
were  favorable,  there  is  no  time  for  extra  work.  It  is  already  a  question  of 


4 


shortening  the  course,  rather  than  of  lengthening  it  or  making  it  more  bur¬ 
densome  by  adding  to  it.  Even  now  it  is  a  question  how  best  to  let  go 

something. 

In  the  first  place  I  protest  against  that  attitude  which  regards  every¬ 
thing  but  the  three  r's  as  extra  work.  Moderate  proficiency  in  spoken 
English  is  as  essential  as  arithmetic  and  much  more  essential  to  the  average 
man  than  Latin  or  Greek.  Granting  that  the  course  is  already  crowded, 
we  believe  that  almost  anything  can  better  be  sacrificed  than  the  ability 
to  use  effectively  in  both  oral  and  written  expression  the  knowledge  which 
other  subjects  give.  At  best,  this  knowledge  is  not  and  cannot  be  exhaust¬ 
ive.  A  drop  more  or  less  in  the  cup  of  knowledge  will  scarcely  be  no¬ 
ticed  while  the  total  lack  of  ability  to  use  it  will  be  keenly  felt. 

,  If  we  admit  that  under  proper  conditions,  debate  is  desirable  and  that 
the  high  schools  offer  proper  conditions  for  its  study,  it  still  remains  to  be 
shown  that  interscholastic  debate,  such  as  is  contemplated  by  the  Minnesota 
State  League,  is  desirable.  In  the  first  place,  it  makes  the  schools  better 
acquainted  with  one  another  and  brings  them  into  healthy  rivalry.  It  can¬ 
not  be  denied  that  in  a  few  instances,  it  has  brought  them  into  unhealthy 
rivalry.  But  these  instances  are  exceptional  and  it  is  believed  they  are 
unnecessary.  The  rivalry  between  universities  in  intercollegiate  debate  has 
sometimes  been  bitter  and  undesirable,  but  the  benefits  have  been  so  marked, 
both  to  students  and  to  universities,  that  those  in  charge  have  struggled 
to  eliminate  the  objectionable  features  rather  than  to  throw  away  both  good 
and  bad  together.  Trouble  between  universities  competing  in  debate  is 
less  serious  and  less  frequent  than  it  was  five  years  ago.  It  is  believed  that 
the  high  schools  will  have  the  same  experience  and  that  the  machinery  of 
the  league,  like  most  machinery,  will  work  with  less  friction  after  more  use. 

One  of  the  most  serious  menaces  to  the  life  and  usefulness  of  the 
league  is  the  attitude  assumed  toward  it  by  some  superintendents,  and  as  a 
result,  by  their  schools.  It  is  the  victory  or  death  attitude.  ‘‘Enter  the 
league  if  you  have  a  winning  team.  Stay  out  if  you  have  not!”  “It  is  un¬ 
bounded  honor  if  you  win,  overwhelming  disgrace  if  you  lose!”  Under 
this  impression,  the  whole  school  will  become  keyed  up  to  an  undesirable 
pitch  and  when  defeat  comes,  as  it  is  almost  sure  to  come  soon  or  late,  down 
go  the  hopes  and  ambitions  of  the  whole  school.  That  action  and  reaction 
are  equal,  is  a  law  not  of  the  physical  world  alone.  Viewing  the  work  of 
last  year  kindly  but  critically,  this  mistake  was  made  in  a  few  cases.  It 
seems  to  the  writer  that  those  who  assumed  this  attitude  have  entirely 
misconceived  the  purpose  of  the  state  league.  Its  purpose  is  not  to  de¬ 
termine  what  can  be  done  by  special  effort  on  a  special  occasion,  not  to 
concentrate  the  whole  nervous  force  of  the  school  upon  one  grand  event 
once  a  year.  This  has  been  stated  so  often  within  the  past  year  that  its 
repetition  would  seem  unnecessary.  Spasmodic  effort  accomplishes  but  little 
in  any  line.  It  is  the  systematic,  steady  work  that  counts.  The  true  atti¬ 
tude,  the  scholarly  attitude  is  one  of  moderation.  By  this,  it  must  not  be 
understood  that  indifference  is  counselled.  Indifference  is  death  to  all 
kinds  of  school  work.  Whatever  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth  doing 
well,  and,  in  debate  especially,  deep  conviction  and  vigorous  support  are 
essential.  The  successful  trainer  has  a  firm  hold  on  his  team  and  on  his 
school.  He  urges  that  every  effort  consistent  with  good  work  in  other 
studies  be  put  forth  to  win.  When  defeat  comes  he  urges  that  it  be  ac¬ 
cepted  manfully.  Does  some  one  answer  that  this  is  a  beautiful  ideal,  but 
after  all  a  mere  ideal?  No,  it  is  not.  It  is  the  attitude  assumed  by  most 
of  our  schools  last  year,  be  it  said  to  their  credit,  and  it  is  the  attitude  as¬ 
sumed  by  most  of  them  this  year. 

The  interscholastic  contest  brings  school  work,  not  debate  alone,  but 
all  school  work,  into  public  notice,  and  it  is  believed  tliat  publicity  is  as  good 
for  schools  as  it  i*s  for  trusts. 

By  comparing  standards,  the  interscholastic  debates  unify  the  work 


5 


throughout  the  state  and  tend  to  bring  all  the  schools  up  to  the  same 
high  plane.  It  is  probably  true  that  the  schools  which  are  most  anxious  to 
enter  the  league  are  least  in  need  of  its  assistance.  They  already  have 
good  practical  courses  in  English  and  it  is  little  or  no  extra  work  for 
them  to  get  ready  for  the  contests.  But  it  is  hoped  that  heir  good  work 
will  stimulate  the  schools  which  are  giving  little  or  no  attention  to  English 
of  a  practical  kind. 

It  is  sometimes  urged  that  anything  which  creates  so  much  excitement 
has  a  disorganizing,  demoralizing  effect  on  a  school.  Let  us  examine  this 
point  for  a  moment.  The  main  volume  of  energy  in  any  school  is  easily 
directed  into  the  channels  of  regular  study.  It  need  not  be  taken  into 
account  in  a  consideration  of  discipline.  But  there  is  always  a  little  sur¬ 
plus  that  cannot  be  dissipated  in  the  regular  way.  Mankind — and  childkind 
— is  so  constituted  that  this  surplus  calls  for  some  extraordinary  outlet.  The 
successful  disciplinarian  knows  this  and  consciously  or  unconsciously  pro¬ 
vides  for  its  escape  in  the  least  harmful  way.  Take  a  familiar  illustration. 
When  a  room  becomes  restless  from  excess  of  nervous  energy,  a  skillful 
teacher  will  tell  or  read  a  good  story,  secure  a  hearty  laugh,  clear  the  at¬ 
mosphere  and  go  on.  When  excessive  physical  energy  is  the  cause  of  the 
disturbance,  three  minutes’  physical  culture  will  accomplish  the  same  result 
and  enable  the  work  to  move  on  again  under  favorable  conditions.  The  un¬ 
successful  disciplinarian  tries  to  suppress  this  disturbing  element  by  main 
force  and  fails,  of  course,  for  it  can  no  more  be  suppressed  than  a  live 
spring  can  be  smothered  by  throwing  earth  upon  it.  Suppressed  energy  re¬ 
appears  in  the  form  of  mischief. 

The  whole  school  is  not  very  different  from  the  individual  room — it  is 
merely  an  aggregate  of  rooms.  This  surplus  energy  is  present  from  the 
primary  to  and  through  the  university.  President  Northrup  says  that  the 
difficulty,  of  disciplining  a  large  university  has  decreased  fifty  per  cent  since 
the  introduction  of  football  and  other  college  athletics.  We  have  all  ob¬ 
served  that  hazing  and  other  “smart”  college  pranks  have  almost  entirely 
disappeared  in  recent  years.  Fortunate,  indeed,  is  the  disciplinarian  who 
can  direct  this  excess  of  energy  along  lines  which  are  beneficial — who  can 
utilize  waste. 

It  is  contended  in  this  paper  that  debate  is  sufficiently  different  from 
other  studies  to  constitute  an  attractive  diversion.  It  is  a  rest  and  relief 
from  other  work.  The  interscholastic  debate  is  a  topic  of  popular  and 
enthusiastic  conversation  for  some  time  before  and  after  it  occurs.  There  is 
not  another  diversion  in  school  life  except  football  that  is  more  absorbing 
than  debate.  Indeed,  some  danger  lies  in  this  very  fact.  It  may  act  as  a 
disorganizing  influence  unless  kept  under  control.  But  in  the  hands  of  a 
skillful  teacher  it  becomes  a  safety  valve  for  the  escape  of  surplus  energy. 
Through  its  influence,  loyalty  and  pride  in  the  local  school  may  be  stimu¬ 
lated  and  unity  secured. 

If  a  superintendent  finds  from  actual  experience  that  he  is  not  able  to 
make  practical  use  of  this  surplus  energy,  if  he  finds  that  he  cannot  secure 
desirable  results  except  by  protecting  his  students  from  all  forms  of  excite¬ 
ment,  if  he  finds  that  he  must  rear  them  in  a  sort  of  hot-house  intellectual 
atmosphere,  then  he  should  certainly  not  permit  his  school  to  enter  the 
league  because  it  is  likely  to  produce  some  enthusiasm  in  his  school.  No 
teacher  is  under  obligation  to  undertake  what  he  cannot  accomplish.  But 
he  must  not  complain  if  his  hot-house  flowers  wither  when  they  meet  the 
rude  blasts  of  competition  in  after  life,  and  he  must  not  complain  and  try  to 
hold  back  the  superintendent  who  can  make  practical  use  of  enthusiasm 
in  the  good  order  and  discipline  of  his  school. 

It  was  urged  when  the  league  was  organized  a  year  ago  that  the  ex¬ 
pense  would  be  too  great.  So  far  as  reported  there  was  not  a  single  district 
nor  a  single  school  left  with  a  debt  on  its  hands  last  year.  All  purchased 
considerable  material  for  reading  and  many  schools  were  able  to  lay  aside 

w  \ 

A 


6 


a  fund  for  future  i"5e.  There  is  nothing  succeeds  like  success  and  from  a 
financial  standpoint  the  league  was  certainly  a  success  last  year. 

It  was  also  urged  that  the  meagre  library  facilities  and  smaller  teaching 
force  of  the  country  high  schools  would  act  as  a  decided  handicap  and 
give  these  schools  but  little  chance  to  win.  A  large  library  is  a  decided 
advantage  in  many  ways.  But  does  any  one  presume  that  the  high  school 
student  can  make  use  of  all  that  is  written  on  a  really  broad  debatable  ques¬ 
tion?  Up  to  a 'certain  point,  material  is  valuable;  beyond  that  point,  it  con¬ 
fuses  the  immature  student.  It  snows  him  under,  befogs  him,  smothers 
him.  A  few  leading  articles  that  will  give  him  a  firm  hold  on  the  under¬ 
lying  principles,  and  facts  enough  so  that  his  argument  may  not  seem 
thin,  are  sufficient.  This  is  better  than  more.  The  student  can  better 
afford  to  spend  extra  time  in  a  thorough  mastery  of  presentation,  than  in 
going  over  material  long  after  he  has  the  main  points  of  his  debate  well 
in  mind.  At  this  stage  of  development,  presentation  is  very  important.  Let 
the  student  get  a  point  clearly  in  mind.  Let  him  present  it  in  different 
language  every  day  for  a  week,  striving  each  day  for  a  clearer,  simpler, 
more  concise,  and  more  earnest  presentation,  and  he  will  easily  pass  his  op¬ 
ponent  whose  mind  is  burdened  by  a  mass  of  undigested  material  and  who 
from  lack  of  practice  has  neither  a  clear  nor  strong  delivery.  So  that  after 
all.  the  advantage  of  a  large  library — to.the  high  school  student  at  least — 
is  more  apparent  than  real.  From  two  dollars  to  five  dollars  will  generally 
secure  as  much  material  as  can  be  used  to  advantage  in  high  school  debate. 
It  is  a  very  small  school  indeed  that  cannot  afford  to  put  $5.00  into  reading 
material  for  a  year’s  debate. 

The  smaller  teaching  force  in  the  country  high  school  may  be  a  more 
serious  handicap.  The  writer  is  not  so  well  prerat^Ld-te-^e^^n  This^sub- 
j-ect,  but  he  suspects  that  the- larger  TUunber  of  students  and  teachers  in 
our  largest  schools  makes  it  possible  for  the  principle  of  division  of  labor 
to  be  applied  more  successfully  in  the  latter.  But  on  these  twro  points,  li¬ 
brary  facilities  and  teaching  force,  experience  is  the  most  convincing  form 
of  argument.  The  smaller  schools  won  out  in  the  league  last  year.  Wheth¬ 
er  this  was  through  luck  or  through  more  careful  preparation  is  not  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  this  paper  to  discuss.  It  is  certain  that  if  they  had  not  won,  plenty 
of  people  would  have  been  ready  to  say  that  inadequate  library  facilities 
and  insufficient  teaching  force  was  the  cause.  Under  a  certain  age  children 
should  not  attempt  debate  at  all.  They  are  not  mentally  equipped  for  it. 
Similarly  it  may  be  argued  that  under  a  certain  size,  high  schools  should 
not  attempt  interscholastic  debate.  They  should  be  satisfied  because  of 
their  smaller  numbers  and  smaller  teaching  force  to  derive  what  benefit  they 
can  from  purely  local  contests.  Just  where  the  dividing  line  lies  between 
the  school  that  is  too  small  and  the  school  that  is  large  enough  to  under¬ 
take  interscholastic  contests  to  advantage,  must  be  left  to  the  discretion 
and  good  sense  of  the  principal.  No  hard  and  fast  rule  can  be  laid  down. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  school  winning  state  championship  has 

to  enter  too  many  contests.  Last  year,  the  winner  participated  in  five, 
although  there  were  twenty-six  schools  in  the  league.  If  this  is  too  many 
contests  it  would  be  possible  to  so  arrange  the  league  as  to  reduce  the  num¬ 
ber;  but  if  the  contests  are  begun  early  enough  it  is1  not  believed  that  one 
contest  a  month  will  be  burdensome,  especially  when  the  same  subject  is 
used  throughout  the  series. 

The  difficulty  of  securing  competent  and  unbiased  judges  was  one  of 
the  most  perplexing  and  unsatisfactory  features  of  the  work  of  the  league 
last  year.  Although  new  to  the  high  schools  it  is  not  really  a  new  or  recent 
difficulty.  The  universities  have  been  struggling  with  the  same  problem  for 
some  years  and  still  it  is  only  partially  solved. 

They  have  learned  two  important  lessons,  at  least.  First,  select  judges 
with  great  care.  Second,  abide  courteously  by  the  decision,  no  matter  how 


7 


unfair  it  may  seem.  The  “knocker”  is  generally  regarded  as  a  “sorehead,”^ 
no  matter  how  just  his  cause  may  be. 

When  a  fair  question  is  about  equally  well  argued  on  both  sides  an 
unprejudiced  audience  will  be  about  equally  divided  between  the  affirmative 
and  negative.  There  is  always  room  for  this  honest  difference  of  opinion. 

It  is  natural  and  desirable  in  everything — except  possibly  in  debate  when 
the  majority  doesn’t  happen  to  be  on  your  side.  What  does  a  man  gen¬ 
erally  mean  when  he  begins  to  talk  boisterously  about  an  “unfair”  decision? 

He  means  simply  that  a  fair  decision  must  agree  with  his  r articular  views. 
The  same  reasoning  carried  a  little  further  would  make  a  fair  decision 
agree  with  everybody’s  particular  views,  and  this  is  manifestly  an  absurdity. 
The  moral  is,  select  your  judges  with  care  and  then  don’t  “jump  on  them” 
and  argue  the  question  'all  over  with  them  if  you  happen  to.  differ.  It  may 
be  allowable  to  mob  the  umpire  and  engage  in  a  free  for  all  at  a  baseball 
game  but  such  conduct  is  hardly  in  keeping  with  the  dignity  of  debate. 

After  all,  the  decisions  rendered  in  these  debates  are  about  ias  fair  as 
those  handed  down  from  courts  of  law.  Absolute  justice  is  an  ideal  not 
attainable  in  earthly  matters.  As  Justice  Lewis,  of  the  supreme  court,  said 
last  year  in  regard  to  one  of  these  debates,  “All  such  decisions  are  at  best 
only  approximations.” 

It  has  been  suggested  that  while  local  debate  in  the  high  school  is  de¬ 
sirable,  interscholastic  debate  is  a.  dangerous  nervous  strain  to  young  stu¬ 
dents;  that  its  demands  excessive  time  of  the  teacher  for  the  benefit  of  a 
few  students;  that  it  demands  excessive  time  of  these  students  and  results 
in  the  neglect  of  other  studies.  The  high  school  presenting  such  an  ar¬ 
gument  makes  a  frank  confession  of  the  weakness  of  its  course  in  prac- 
.tical  English.  If  the  school  is  as  weak  as  this  would  indicate,  it  cer¬ 
tainly  ought — itot — to_jmter_the  league  and  no  one  who  understood  the 
situation  would  urge  it  to  do' AfoT~~ ft  sb-OplcLbe  said  right  here  that  not  a 
single  school  of  this  kind  has  ever  been  urged  to  enter  the  league.  If  a 
debating  team  has  to  be  worked  up  each  year  from  the  raw  material  of  any 
school,  it  makes  no  difference  whether  the  school  is  large  or  small,  all  the. 
above  objections  will  hold  good.  But  is  this  low  standard  of  English  neces¬ 
sary  or  justifiable  in  our  schools,  even  our  smaller  schools?  The  superin¬ 
tendents  can  answer  better  than  the  writer. 

The  state  league  presumes  that  the  high  schools  are  willing  to  grant 
a  modest  place  to  spoken  English  and  can  afford  the  time  to  do  so.  Sup¬ 
pose  now  that  such  a  course  is  installed.  Suppose  that  the  aim  of  this 
course  is  to  enable  every  student  to  stand  before  his  class  and  tell  in  a 
simple  and  straightforward  way  what  he  knows  on  any  subject.  Suppose 
that  the  course  is  carefully  graded — the  simpler  exercises,  such  as  declama¬ 
tion,  story  telling,  oratorical  analysis  and  forensics,  preceding  and  paving  the 
way  for  the  most  difficult  debate.  Suppose  that  the  student  has  had  a 
moderate  amount  of  training  in  English  from  the  time  he  entered  the  high 
school  until  he  is  a  senior;  that  he  not  only  understands  theoretically  what 
“exposition”  and  “argumentation”  are,  that  he  can  not  only  identify  good 
specimens  of  these  styles  in  the  works  of  Webster  and  Phillips  but  that  he 
can  make  good  specimens  himself.  Suppose  that  when  a  debatable  propo¬ 
sition  is  given  him  he  has  learned  how  to.  draw  material  from  every  source, 
arrange  it  systematically  in  the  form  of  a  simple  brief,  and  stand  before 
his  class  and  present  it  in  reasonably  good  language.  Let  us  assume  this 
— and  the  league  does  assume  it — and  what  becomes  of  the  objections  men¬ 
tioned  above.  They  fall  to  the  ground.  The  writer  has  never  yet  known 
a  thoroughly  trained  debater  who  has  not  found  the  study  to  be  an  exhila¬ 
rating,  delightful  stimulus,  not  a  cause  for  hysteria  or  nervous  prostration. 
Now  if  it  is  admitted  that  this  is  not  an  unreasonable  demand  to  make  of 
the  schools — and  there  are  plenty  who  will  admit  it  for  there  are  plenty  oi 
schools  which  are  accomplishing  these  very  results — then  what  becomes 
of  the  argument  (l)  that  the  state  league  demands  too  much  time  of  the 


8 


